Don’t Hold Back! 7 Reasons Crying Is Actually GOOD For You

Letting your tears flow is one of the healthiest things you can do — and here’s a breakdown of WHY:

1. Crying provides a powerful emotional release.
Sometimes nothing else is quite as effective for moving through emotions as a good cry. A complicated physiological reaction, tears appear to act as an emotional overflow mechanism of sorts.

Crying helps mobilize intense feelings, provide their cathartic release, and is one of our most efficient balancing tools.

2. Tears remove toxins.
Like a good sweat, crying releases toxins that can build up in the body. Biochemist William Frey’s research found that emotional tears have higher levels of stress hormones than tears shed by, say, slicing an onion.

Like other exocrine secretions (like sweating, urinating, or even exhaling) tears allow the body to rid itself of excess stress chemicals built up from emotional tension.